JR Motorsports have racked up a total of 11 wins through the first 29 races of the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series season, and three of them have been earned by an entry that doesn't even run full-time.
The No. 9 team is 15th in the owner standings, third highest among non-playoff entries, despite having run just 18 of those 29 races.
Its three wins came courtesy of full-time Trackhouse Racing Cup Series drivers, with Shane van Gisbergen winning on the road courses at Circuit of the Americas and Sonoma Raceway and Ross Chastain winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
This past weekend at Charlotte, it was Jake Finch behind the wheel for the fourth time this year, but he was knocked out in a crash involving teammate Rajah Caruth, resulting in a 31st place DNF. In his most recent start prior to the race at Charlotte, he had placed a career-high 11th at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Jake Finch competing at Phoenix Raceway, adding to his 2026 JRM schedule
Finch is the only driver who has driven the No. 9 Chevrolet in the postseason so far this year, and there are no plans for that to change; its only two other drivers this year are Carson Kvapil, who competes full-time for JR Motorsports and is now strictly behind the wheel of the No. 1 Chevrolet since full-time Cup driver Connor Zilisch cannot run O'Reilly Series playoff races, and Lee Pulliam, who competed in just one race for the team at Martinsville Speedway back in March.
This weekend at Phoenix Raceway, the three-time race-winning car was not initially going to be entered, and beyond this weekend, its only remaining start planned for the 2026 season was for next weekend's race at Talladega Superspeedway, again with Finch behind the wheel.
But Finch is indeed set to compete at the four-turn, 1.022-mile (1.645-kilometer) Avondale, Arizona oval, marking the first time he's run back-to-back O'Reilly Series races, as his five-race schedule for 2026 has been turned into a six-race schedule.
Finch made his O'Reilly Series debut at Dover Motor Speedway for Hendrick Motorsports in 2025 but did not return until July 2026 at EchoPark Speedway (Atlanta Motor Speedway) with JR Motorsports. He also competed at Darlington Raceway in early September, prior to his 11th place finish at Bristol a few weeks later.
Tune in to the CW Network at 7:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, October 17 for live coverage of the Timberland PRO 200 from Phoenix Raceway. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and catch all of the action from the sixth of nine races on the 2026 NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series playoff schedule!
Add us as a preferred source on Google